Dodgers Even N.L.C.S. With Brewers in Edgy and Exhausting Battle

LOS ANGELES — As Cody Bellinger sprinted out into left field, a mob of joyous teammates and Manager Dave Roberts giving chase, the Los Angeles Dodgers could finally breathe.

The tension that had gripped Dodger Stadium at the start of Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Tuesday night, with the Dodgers trailing the Milwaukee Brewers, two games to one, had only intensified with each scoreless inning, each strikeout and each Dodgers failure to break through. All of it hinted at another October disappointment for a team that has not won a championship in 30 years.

But when Bellinger lined a 3-2 slider from the Brewers’ Junior Guerra into right field with two out in the bottom of the 13th inning, bringing home Manny Machado from second base just ahead of the throw from right fielder Christian Yelich, the Dodgers not only breathed, they rejoiced.

The 2-1 victory did more than just even the series at two games apiece. It meant the Dodgers would not be facing elimination when they and the Brewers got right back on the field for Game 5 on Wednesday afternoon. It meant, with their ace, Clayton Kershaw, due to start that game, that they would have a chance to take control of the series.

And all because Bellinger found a way to come through after an exhausting marathon that lasted over five hours and was laced with controversy.

“You lose that game, extra innings, at home, go down, 3-1,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said afterward. “It’s not a very good feeling with a quick turnaround tomorrow.”

Instead it was the Brewers who were left to resolve some unpleasant emotions about Game 4, and not all of them had to do with the kick-to-the-gut defeat. Adding to their discontent, not surprisingly, was the behavior of Machado, the Dodgers star who, before Game 4, had already drawn criticism in this series for not running hard on a ground ball and for an out-of-bounds slide at second base on Monday night.

His transgression on Tuesday night was worse and considerably more inexplicable. In this instance, as he ran out a ground ball in the 10th inning, he dragged his left leg and kicked the exposed ankle of the Brewers’ first baseman, Jesus Aguilar.

The two players had words and both benches emptied, but with the stakes as high as they are, the situation didn’t escalate. Nevertheless, several Brewers said afterward that they thought Machado had deliberately attempted to injure Aguilar and they ripped into him.

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Machado clipped the leg of Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar during the 10th inning.CreditHarry How/Getty Images

“He is a player that has a history with those types of incidents,” said Yelich, who then referred to Machado with an expletive. “One time is an accident. Repeated over and over and over again, it’s a dirty play by a dirty player.” Infielder Travis Shaw added: “It’s not a mistake. You don’t kick somebody like that on accident. It’s a dirty play.”

Machado, who apologized to Aguilar when he later reached first base in the decisive 13th inning — Aguilar patted him on the back as if to say everything was O.K. — pleaded not guilty. He spoke to reporters after spending about 10 minutes scrolling through his cellphone.

“If that’s their comments, I can’t do nothing about that,” he said when asked for a response to what Yelich and Shaw had said about him. Asked for his version of the play and why he had collided with Aguilar, Machado said: “Why? You saw the replay. Probably I was trying to get over him and hit his foot. If that’s dirty, that’s dirty. I don’t know. Call it what you want.”

He is also an uncommon talent with an abundance of baseball smarts. And those were on display in the 13th inning after he reached first on a one-out, broken-bat single. Brian Dozier then popped out for the second out. But Machado astutely spotted a slider coming out of Guerra’s hand on the first pitch to the next batter, Bellinger, and when the pitch bounced, Machado bolted for second.

The Brewers’ catcher, Erik Kratz, blocked the pitch but by the time he gathered it and threw to second base, Machado had slid in safely.

Amid all of Machado’s minor mayhem on the bases, the Brewers had a decision to make once Machado did reach second — whether to pitch to Bellinger, who hit 25 home runs this season but was just 2 for 25 in the postseason, or walk him, since first base was now open.

Next up after Bellinger was Yasmani Grandal, who was lustily booed on Monday night by Dodgers fans because of his persistent postseason struggles at bat and behind the plate. Following Grandal in the lineup was reliever Julio Urias, and with the Dodgers’ bench exhausted, he would have had to hit if the Brewers pitched around Grandal, too.

The Brewers decided to try to get Bellinger out.

Bellinger said: “Honestly, I was surprised that they were throwing to me. I thought they would pitch around me and get me to swing. Once I saw they were attacking me, it was just kind of grind mode and do what you can to put the ball in play and try to end the game.”

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Cody Bellinger after making a sliding catch of Lorenzo Cain’s drive in the top of the 10th inning.CreditGary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

The way the Dodgers hitters have flailed in this series, attacking Bellinger was a reasonable proposition. The Dodgers have scored two runs in the last 22 innings and have struck out 47 times in the series, including 15 times in Game 4. But in this instance, the Brewers’ gamble didn’t work.

For Milwaukee, Game 4 began in a very different fashion than Games 2 and 3, when the team received strong starts from pitchers Wade Miley and Jhoulys Chacin, each of whom carried shutouts into the sixth inning. But on Tuesday night, the Brewers had to quickly go to their deep and formidable bullpen after starter Gio Gonzalez sprained his ankle leaping in an effort to snag a comebacker to begin the second inning.

That bullpen kept the Dodgers from getting another hit until Austin Barnes led off the seventh with a single. Before that, the Dodgers’ only offense came when Dozier hit a two-out single in the first inning to score Chris Taylor and energize a crowd that was far more vocal than it had been in the Dodgers’ Game 3 defeat.

Dozier’s hit also repaid the faith that Roberts had showed in him, handing him a rare playoff start after hitting just .087 in September and after taking a called third strike with the bases loaded to end Game 3.

But the first-inning run did not signal an offensive awakening from the Dodgers, who were the highest-scoring team in the National League this season. What the Dodgers did get, however, was enough strong pitching of their own — and a pair of superlative diving catches in the outfield by Taylor in left and Bellinger in right.

The one Brewers run came in the top of the fifth, when shortstop Orlando Arcia singled with one out and then raced all the way home when pinch-hitter Domingo Santana stroked a double into the right-center gap.

After Arcia slid home headfirst, he came to a rest and lingered there for a moment. It was a snapshot that implied that Arcia, who had been twice sent to the minors this season before emerging as an unlikely offensive hero, was not going anywhere. And neither were the surprising Brewers. Though they could do no more damage in the fifth, they continued to pressure the Dodgers, putting the leadoff man aboard in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings and a runner in scoring position in the ninth and 10th.

The Dodgers had a chance in the bottom of the eighth when Bellinger, with a half swing, poked a pitch from the All-Star reliever Josh Hader through the vacated left side of the infield, sending Dozier, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, to third base.

But Hader dispatched Matt Kemp, striking him out, and the game moved on. As it did, the Dodgers did little. Corey Knebel pitched a hitless ninth for the Brewers and Guerra retired the side in the three innings that followed. Then came the bottom of the 13th and the Dodgers’ breakthrough.

“It was such an exhausting game,” Taylor said. “I think everybody wants to go home and get some sleep.”